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(Reuters) - A plunge in U.S. homebuilder confidence reported on Tuesday reflects a range of problems facing the construction industry seven years after the housing crash, challenges that go deeper than the severe winter weather blamed for much of the gloom.

China Cuts Treasury Holdings Most Since 2011 Amid Taper Bloomberg China, the largest foreign U.S. creditor, reduced holdings of U.S. Treasury debt in December by the most in two years as the Federal Reserve announced plans to slow asset purchases. The Communist nation reduced its position in U.S. government bonds by&nbsp; ... and more&nbsp;&raquo;

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is out with a new report on President Obama's proposal to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour by 2016, and its most important finding is this: The increase in the minimum wage would have two principal effects on low-wage workers: The large majority would have higher wages and family income, but a much smaller group would be jobless and have much lower family income. More specifically, the CBO found that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour (and then indexing it to inflation) would reduce employment by between a very small amount and 1 million workers, with the agency's best guess being about 500,000 workers. Republicans are seizing on that finding, with a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) saying: "This report confirms what we've long known: While helping some, mandating higher wages has real costs, including fewer people working." At the same time, the report finds that about 16.5 million low-wage Americans would see an increase in their earnings as a result of the hike in the minimum wage. A much smaller number of higher-wage earners would also see a jump in income, the CBO said. The agency explained the impact on employment this way: According to conventional economic analysis, increasing the minimum wage reduces employment in two ways. First, higher wages increase the cost to employers of producing goods and services. The employers pass some of those increased costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices, and those higher prices, in turn, lead the consumers to purchase fewer of the goods and services. The employers consequently produce fewer goods and services, so they hire fewer workers. That is known as a scale effect, and it reduces employment among both low-wage workers and higher-wage workers. Second, a minimum-wage increase raises the cost of low-wage workers relative to other inputs that employers use to produce goods and services, such as machines...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of home builders extended losses, before staging a modest rebound, after data released Tuesday morning showed that a gauge of sentiment among builders had plunged this month. Shares of D.R. Horton and PulteGroup were both recently off about 2%, while shares of Lennar were down more than 1%. The stocks fell after data showed that a housing-market index dropped in February to the lowest level in nine months, and signaled that builders, generally, are pessimistic about sales trends.

Alan S. Kaplinsky The U.S. Chamber of Commerce&#8217;s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness has sent a detailed letter to Director Cordray in which it criticizes the CFPB&#8217;s approach of &#8220;regulation by enforcement settlement combined with issuance of brief guidance statements&#8221; in lieu of engaging in rulemaking or otherwise soliciting public input. In the letter, the Chamber expresses its strong... More &#62;

Five years ago, a little less than a month after taking office, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. At the time, the private sector had cut almost 4 million jobs and the country was experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression. Thanks to President Obama's bold action, the Recovery [&#8230;]

So far this year, some homebuyers and home sellers seem to have gone missing. We can't help but wonder: are they coming late to the party, or is it just going to be a smaller, quieter party this year? Read&#160;More The post 2014 Housing Market: Where Is Everyone? appeared first on Redfin Real Estate Blog .

Geographic Gap Marks Mortgage Interest Deduction Benefit: Taxes Bloomberg A gap of almost $250 exists between the states reaping the highest per person benefit from the mortgage interest deduction and those with the lowest such figure, according to a Congressional Research Service report highlighting the tax break&#39;s uneven&nbsp; ...

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